


and we all fall down

by unnbrella



Category: The Walking Dead (Telltale Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Clarah, Drama, Ericson kidz make appearances, F/F, Family, Forgiveness, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Suspense, Zombie Apocalypse, bandit!Sarah, conflicting feelings and emotions for everyone, gay subtext everywhere, just kidding sarahs not dead, lil bit of violentine, piecing it back together
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-20
Updated: 2020-09-23
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:42:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26553037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unnbrella/pseuds/unnbrella
Summary: Six years ago, she’d known a girl who wore glasses like those, and suddenly Clementine feels like a little kid again, latching pinkies with a stranger and making life-long promises she can’t keep.
Relationships: Clementine & Sarah (Walking Dead: All That Remains), Clementine/Louis (Walking Dead: Done Running), Clementine/Violet (Walking Dead: Done Running)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 39





	1. i'm so out of touch these days

**Author's Note:**

> is anyone else out here still reading twdg fanfiction?

“Where is it?”

A man, presumably in his late twenties, quivers before the aiming rifle that overpowers their cowering figures. “I’m telling you, I don’t know.” His voice is pleading yet firm, clearly attempting and failing to hide the panic underneath.

Clementine couldn’t be more familiar with that sound.

“Quit fucking around,” demands the bandit, jerking the weapon once more and losing patience. “We’ve looked. We know there’s no one else here for miles.”

“We—we don’t know what you’re talking about.” There’s a second voice – a woman’s – her tone much more frantic than the other. She’s also kneeled on the forest floor, both of the couple’s unarmed hands surrendering in the air.

There’s another bandit who speaks up - three of them to be exact, at least from what they can see. The second one takes a step forward and angles her chin to mutter to her friend. “They do look a little old,” she observes, her volume lowering.

She may be in her forties, it’s hard to tell. She’s older though, with dark skin and black curly hair tucked into a messy bun. There’s a rifle clutched to her chest too, only it remains lowered to the ground.

“We can’t assume. Anyone could be hiding up there with them.”

“We have to do something,” Louis whispers into Clementine’s ear. His gaze briefly flickers at her crouching next to him.

She only continues to stare forward and Louis curses the fact that he can never fucking read what she’s thinking when it comes to situations like these. They can’t sit here any longer not doing anything. They’ve both seen too much of this over the years to know how it ends.

This hadn’t been what they’d expected to find on their run today – a couple of unfamiliar innocents being threatened for answers. Nothing that isn’t hard to find, but still. If Clem and Louis had only checked the traps on the East side first, it could’ve been them. It could’ve been any one of them lingering so close to the school. If anything, they’d probably have handled it better than these people.

Clementine can hardly decipher what the continuing voices are saying anymore as her mind scrambles for a plan of action.

Then, everyone goes silent as the interrogators all exchange perplexing looks, as if deciding what next to do with the unsuspecting couple who can only anticipate their fate.

Remembering what they’re here for, Clementine takes a breath only for her to forget her sentence moments later when she sees movement from up ahead.

There’s a girl with them. She’s merely lingering in the back and is the only one of the bandits who hasn’t yet said a word. The two others turn expectantly to her before one of them shoves her in the back with his rifle and she stumbles forward.

It isn’t until then that Clementine takes another second to really look at her, and she swears her heart skips a beat.

She wears a grey hood underneath her brown jacket, blue jeans and buckled boots that squelch through the mud of the forest floor as she walks. Her long dark hair is tied back into a ponytail, two strands falling on either side of her face and… and those red-framed glasses slipping off the bridge of her nose. They’re cracked on one side, but it’s _those_ red-framed glasses that take Clementine another second to recognize.

Six years ago, she’d known a girl who wore glasses like those, and suddenly Clementine feels like a little kid again, latching pinkies with a stranger and making life-long promises she can’t keep. They are mere memories she’d forced out of her mind and vowed to never look back on again. It hurt her too much.

So now all Clementine can do is stare, frozen.

This isn’t Sarah. Sarah’s dead. Sarah was shot among a horde of walkers, painted in guts and frail from her father’s death just minutes before. She’d never made it out of that camp. She… she couldn’t have. They looked for her.

Still, the more Clementine gawks at this girl in front of her, the more obvious the resemblance becomes. She would be about the same age - if Clem is doing the math correctly. It’s hard to tell from this distance. But if Clementine had made it all the way out here after all these years, surely Sarah could have too. It would’ve been damn near impossible for someone like her, that’s for sure.

And Sarah would _never_ hurt anyone, or even threaten to. She wouldn’t be doing this. Which is why Clementine convinces herself that it isn’t her. Just someone who reminds her a hell of a lot of Sarah.

“P-please, just let us go,” the man continues to beg. “We—we’ll give you anything you want.”

No one says anything for a while as Sarah— _no_ , the girl… the girl hesitantly steps forward with a pistol clutched in between her hands. She doesn’t look as if she’s going to use it – it’s merely for security. A scare tactic. Nothing more.

The girl ignores their pleas, continuing to circle around them like a hawk as if they aren’t saying anything at all.

Clementine has seen it all before, the way she looks down on those people. She knows she’s the one in power here. But the one thing that Clementine finds different about her, is the fact that she looks like she doesn’t _want_ to be doing it.

Anyone unpleasant Clem has ever come across always had that satisfied glint in their eyes, like they knew exactly what they wanted and why they wanted it, and they were willing to do whatever necessary to make that happen. But no matter how hard Clem searches, she can’t find it. All she sees is fear. Fear and regret – as if the girl is apologizing for what she’s doing while she’s doing it.

Louis and Clementine only watch in silence, daring not to breathe as the girl begins searching through both of the scavenger’s backpacks. Everyone else waits with anticipation.

“Anything?”

Their voices are distant and faded, and it takes a little extra effort for Louis and Clem to decipher the words from their spot in the bushes.

“Nothing,” says the girl, rising to her feet and taking a few good steps back again.

That voice.

“Clem,” Louis whispers harshly. _Say something_. She can feel him staring her down now, as if to say if she won’t do something soon, _he_ will.

Inhaling sharply, Clementine blinks out of her own trance. They’re running out of time. She forces the thoughts away and tightens her grip on her bow.

Even if that _is_ Sarah, someone has to put an end to this, one way or another.

“Can you get around to the other side?” Clementine suggests, eyes finally meeting with the boy next to her.

He nods promisingly, already moving away from her with his weapon in hand. “On my signal.”

With that, Clementine cautiously moves further inward. She waits until she sees him on the opposite end of the unsuspecting group, his face merely peeking out from within the shrubbery. They lock eyes from afar.

Finally, they share an affirmative nod.

Brushing away the worst possibility of this situation, Clementine leaps to a stand and draws her bow.

The hopeful part of her wants to lower her weapon just as fast as she raises it, but before Clementine can even consider it, an arrow whooshes past her and the bow is knocked straight out of her hands.

A whimper escapes her throat as she stumbles. It takes her a couple frantic moments to piece together what just happened. However, when she raises her head again, a figure is already lunging toward her and her blade instinctively slashes its throat before either of them can hit the ground.

There may be a commotion in the distance, she isn’t sure.

Panting through her racing heart, Clementine glances down at the twitching body near her feet. Blood spurts out of his gaping mouth, his desperate eyes piercing into hers as red-stained hands clutch at his own throat.

It hadn’t been a walker, but a boy. A boy only a few years older than her.

_Louis._

Clementine whips around, until there’s a sudden blow to the back of her head and everything goes black.

* * *

_Two weeks earlier_

Sarah knows that face. She’s seen it in her nightmares.

If the day ever did come, which she doubted it would, she imagined she would’ve felt happy - or at least relieved, or something of the sort. But this? She didn’t think she would feel this way.

If it weren’t for the hat, Sarah probably wouldn’t have recognized her at all. She may have even considered shooting her if it weren’t for the hat. It’s battered and the color is faded. The thing looks like it may finally be living out its last days.

What’s so special about that hat, anyway?

She could run over there. She could call out her name, tell her she never thought she’d see her again and hug her like she’d wished to do all those years ago. But she doesn’t. She hardly even bats an eye. For some reason, the fear of the worst gets the better of her and Sarah can’t find it in her to do a single thing. She just stays there, watching from her safe spot in the dirt.

Clementine might even be as tall as Sarah now, if anything, a bit shorter. For some reason, Sarah remembers her eyes having a lot more life than they do now, despite the circumstances. But she’d be lying if she said the same thing hadn’t happen to her.

Sarah doesn’t move a muscle when shuffling branches next to her interrupt the crickets of the night.

Kai shuffles closer from wherever he had been, army-crawling with his binoculars clutched in his hand and his pistol limp in the other. He hands the object to her and Sarah holds them up to her eyes without a word.

There’s someone else with her on the porch. A girl - with short blonde hair and bangs covering one eye, and a battered denim vest. They look to be the same age, and practically the same height too. Her shoulders appear as if they weigh her down and she wears the same tired look in her eyes as Clementine.

They’re saying something to each other, but their lips are difficult to read with only the orange glow of the lantern that hangs outside the tiny fishing cabin.

“You think that could be them?”

Sarah watches for a second longer as the blonde one disappears inside. Their fingers briefly interlock with each other’s, hidden between their bodies as if no one should know. Sarah doesn’t notice it until they let go.

Peering over her shoulder, Clementine takes one last look out into the darkness of the forest, scanning for movement.

She can’t see them from there, but Sarah still holds her breath.

After a while, Clementine flicks the lantern off and follows the girl inside, shutting the door behind her.

Sarah lowers the binoculars from her eyes, suddenly able to breathe again. She stares aimlessly after the closed door, as if it’ll somehow open again. “Yeah,” she says, her voice emotionless. “That’s them.”


	2. i act out in the wrong ways

When Clementine flickers open her eyes, the first thing she sees are her own wrists strapped to the armrests of a chair.

Slowly, she lifts her chin and doesn’t even remember how she got here until she notices the two figures standing in front of her. Immediately, she recognizes one of them from the forest – the woman with the rifle. She doesn’t know the man who lingers by the door. There’s one standing somewhere behind her, too. Clementine can feel it.

All she sees is wood, and it doesn’t take her long to figure out she’s in some sort of cabin. There aren’t any windows from where she can see for her to figure out what time of day it is, though. There’s nothing but an empty table in front of her in which the woman is casually leaning her hip against the side of it with her arms folded across her chest.

They’re all just staring at her expectantly, and Clementine wonders exactly how long she’s been out.

“We’re impressed,” the woman finally says, breaking the silence. The lantern on the table is the only thing illuminating her face, and it isn’t until now that Clementine really observes her dark eyes and the bags underneath them. “You and your friend must feel pretty confident with your fighting skills. For a couple of teenagers.”

They’ve got Louis, too. Clementine had hoped he’d gotten away. Then again, she knows he’d never let them take her without a fight. _Fucking_ Louis.

Violet will be worried.

“You could’ve gotten away with it, too,” she continues, her tone practically emotionless. “Unfortunately, you’re not good _enough_.”

“What do you want?” Clementine asks, wishing they would just cut to the chase. She’s not in the mood for small talk. She knows how this works by now. People don’t intimidate her anymore. “You didn’t steal enough from those scavengers?”

“Actually, thanks to you, they got away.”

There’s a pointed bitterness in the way she says it, but Clementine finds nothing but satisfaction in that. _Good._

The woman’s head tilts in the slightest, her eyes squinting at the younger girl as if desperately trying to figure her out. “Just how many of you are there?” she questions.

Clem’s default is to say she’s alone, but they already know there’s at least one other person with her. “It’s just us—"

“How about you do us both a favour and cut the bullshit?” interrupts the woman with a bite. The glare in her eyes is nothing but threatening, and the room suddenly goes silent again. She takes a breath, as if attempting to calm her own temper. Her eyebrow twitches challengingly. “Ever heard of a place called Ericson?”

Despite her heart dropping at the name, Clementine fights to maintain her hard stare. However, the satisfied smirk that forms on the other woman’s face moments later proves that Clementine has already given herself away.

The woman chuckles as if she’s already won, and Clementine instantly regrets ever being the cause of that. They both know there’s nothing Clementine can say to save herself at this point, and the woman is clearly enjoying it.

“Let me ask again.” She plants one hand on the surface of the desk and leans forward, the other resting on her protruding hip. Her stare doesn’t falter for a moment, and the tone of her words are firmer than the last. “How many of you are there?”

Whether Clem lies or not, there’s no telling how much these people already know and just aren’t telling her. They’d already tried to test her about Ericson.

Clementine doesn’t answer.

The last thing she sees is the woman subtly glancing somewhere behind Clementine, before a hand grabs the girl’s head and slams it down onto the surface of the desk.

Clementine moans painfully, her body suddenly so much weaker. Okay. She hadn’t been expecting that.

It takes a while for her to sit up again, the restraints on her wrists making the action even more difficult than it would’ve been.

The woman only watches her with intrigue, as if she’s surprised how well Clementine just handled that.

“I almost thought it was too good to be true. How is it that a place as secure as that can be run by a group of kids?” She saunters closer, her fingertips tauntingly trailing along the surface of the table. She stops in front of Clementine and her expression hardens once more. “ _Where_ is Ericson?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Clem wishes she would stop wasting her time with so many questions.

The agitation finally overpowers the woman’s stern voice. “Don’t play dumb with me! I may be going easy on you for now, but chances are I won’t be so understanding with your friend. So, if you both wanna make it out of here alive, all you have to do is tell me where to find the school.”

These people are clearly underestimating them both. At least that’s confirmation Louis is alive. Yet still, the smallest part of Clem fears that he may be the more co-operative one out of the two of them, whenever they end up interrogating him too. She hopes he won’t be.

Clementine leans forward in her chair, as far as her constraints with allow her. “I’m not telling you shit,” she scowls.

Before she can comprehend it, everything flickers black as they slam her head down again... and again. She loses count after the pain really hits and she suddenly tastes blood. Finally, they stop, and she squeezes her eyes as tight as possible to resist the throbbing.

Clementine coughs repeatedly, whimpering through clenched teeth as she finds herself no longer able to move or lift herself up again.

All that can be heard through the tense room is the sound of her labored breathing, as if they’re all waiting for her to finally start spilling some answers. As if she can even think about that anymore.

Still, she’s not admitting anything. There are too many lives inside those school walls – lives she had vowed to protect. As their leader and as their friend.

Clementine will play this out as long as she needs to.

“F-fuck… you…” she croaks. Clem lolls her head to the side, attempting to lift it off the table only for it to fall back down again a moment later.

“That’s enough. We need her alive.”

Clementine can’t even decipher who is speaking anymore as the sounds begin to fade. They may be arguing around her from how loud everything suddenly feels, she isn’t sure. Her vision is only becoming blurrier by the second and eventually the voices evolve into a high-pitched ringing that makes her body go numb. She squints through the haze in an attempt to keep her eyes open as long as possible.

Clementine can’t remember if she fainted after that.


	3. my mouth moves faster than my brain

Clementine moans from the throbbing ache in her head. It feels like it weighs a ton, and she doesn’t even want to try to lift herself off the ground from how heavy it feels. Her eyes hurt too, like it almost stings to keep them open.

Squinting through her blurry vision, she finds her body feeling numb as her gaze gradually focuses on the faint movement ahead. There’s an open door in front of her, with people standing outside of it.

It’s the same woman from before, the one who had interrogated her, and… and Sarah. That girl. That girl who Clementine can hardly hear because of how exhausted she feels but clearly looks upset about something. She’s wiping her eyes constantly with her sleeve and the woman tilts her chin up with both palms on either side of her face.

Then the woman steps in front of her and it becomes harder to see either of them anymore.

Clementine cranes her neck as she lays on her side to figure out where she is. It looks as if she may be in the same dark cabin room as before, but there are bars in front of her this time, and the room itself is slightly smaller than the last.

If Louis were in the same cell as her, he would’ve been instantly pulling her off the floor and hugging her by now. But he doesn’t. Everything is too quiet, so they have to be keeping him in a different one.

Finally, the older one leaves, abandoning the girl to stand alone on the porch of the tiny cabin. Her back is turned though, and Clementine wishes more than anything she could just turn around so Clem can see her face.

Somehow, Clementine strains to prop herself up on her hands, forcing herself to sit up.

The girl is just standing there, with her fingertips hesitantly lingering on the door-handle as if she’s debating whether to look behind her. It appears as if she might begin to walk away, or close the door behind her, but Clementine stops her before she can.

“Sarah.” Clementine isn’t even sure whether that meant to be a question or not. She just knew she had to say _something_ before the other girl walked away. It had been the first thing that came to mind.

The girl tenses at the name, taking a breath. Clementine can feel it even with her back turned. When she looks fully over her shoulder, the expression on the girl’s face is broken.

Her face is flushed and her eyes look exhausted. It’s obvious she had been crying. Her eyebrows are pressed painfully together and it looks as if she’s going to start crying all over again as her eyes finally meet Clementine’s own.

“You… you remember,” the girl finally breaks the silence. Her voice cracks unintentionally, and the sound of it is just as small and fragile as Clementine remembers. Her words alone are almost enough to break the other girl’s heart.

At a loss of what to say next, all Clementine can do is stare, and neither of them know where to start. There are so many questions, yet neither of them can find it in them to ask a single one.

So, it is her. Clementine had been right. This really is Sarah standing _right_ in front of her. Clementine hadn’t even been sure of it when she’d said her name – she had only hoped she wasn’t making a fool out of herself.

“Of course, I do,” breathes Clementine. She may have come across a lot of different people in her life, but she hasn’t forgotten a single one.

Sarah’s hands are clasped shyly in front of her, and her shoulders are tense as if she still wants to appear inferior after all this time. “Y-your face is bleeding.”

“Yeah,” Clementine winces, readjusting herself on the ground as she’s suddenly reminded of the pain she’s in, and how it had been caused in the first place. “I have your friends to thank for that.”

“Sorry,” says Sarah. After a moment, she begins fidgeting with something on the table by the door as if suddenly remembering what she’s here for. The sound of shuffling objects is all that can be heard anymore.

Clementine almost doesn’t even hear her say it. She’s just so… distracted. Her mind is such a mess that she can’t even believe any of this is happening right now. Clementine had thought Sarah would at least smile. It was all she’d done when they’d met the _first_ time… six years ago. But she looks like she hasn’t done that in years.

Of all the people Clementine has met, Sarah had been one of the only ones whose mind hadn’t yet been corrupted by the world. Someone who made Clementine feel as if her childhood wasn’t taken from her after all.

She wants to know what changed, but then again, Clementine has grown up too.

“I thought you…” the words dissolve on Clem’s lips. _I thought you were dead._ She doesn’t want to finish that sentence.

Sarah faces her once more and crouches in front of the bars, but she doesn’t look like she’s even listening.

“How did—”

“Don’t talk,” murmurs Sarah. Her voice is nothing but gentle.

She extends a hand through the bars and begins dabbing a cloth to Clem’s forehead. She isn’t even looking at her, her gaze instead focused on what she’s doing - as if that’s the most important thing right now.

Clementine almost flinches at her touch. She’d completely forgotten about whatever her own face looks like. She couldn’t care less about that right now, and a part of her wants to push Sarah’s hand away and demand answers instead.

But she doesn’t.

She just… can’t. Because now, Clementine is once again at a total loss of what to do.

This is the first time she’s seeing Sarah’s face up close – at least, not since before. In fact, she’s very close to her right now. So close that Clem can hear her breathing.

Her face has… changed. A lot. Her features are sharper, and she looks mature, and nearly devoid of any expression. The look in her eyes seem darker, and Clementine wonders how these can be the same eyes that once held so much life in them - so much that she once had enough to give away.

Her hair is a lot longer too, and Clementine admires the way she’d tied it into a ponytail, and the way some strands of hair fall out the sides and frame her face. It suits her.

Yet somehow, she still just looks like a scared little girl, hiding underneath it for someone to find.

Suddenly realizing how much she’s staring right now, Clementine forces her gaze away.

Of course, Sarah would be doing this right now. Her dad had been the same way. Always trying to fix people up even when they didn’t need it.

Did they knock Clem out twice just to send Sarah here to help her? Or is she here voluntarily? And why was she crying earlier?

“I’m sorry they hurt you,” murmurs Sarah. Her eyes flicker to Clementine’s before insecurely shifting away again. “Vanya isn’t usually so… insistent.”

Clementine resists a scoff. She could think of a better word for that.

 _Vanya_. At least Clem has a name to the face now.

How can Sarah be defending her right now? Then she remembers the way Vanya had held Sarah’s face just minutes before, and she wonders what they could mean to each other. Despite it all, Clementine isn’t the one who has to like her.

“I’m used to it,” responds Clem, hoping to brush away the subject. She’d only meant to lighten the situation, however Sarah’s expression only hardens after that, and Clem realizes that she clearly doesn’t care about her own well-being as much as Sarah seems to.

Clementine used to _always_ know what to say to Sarah – no matter what the situation was. Now, she couldn’t be more unsure. Clem can’t tell her everything will be okay anymore, because this time, Sarah would know she’s lying. Suddenly, Clem regrets ever lying to her in the first place.

She wants to ask where Sarah has been this whole time, but she guesses that much is already obvious.

“I don’t understand,” begins Clementine. “How did you escape?”

Sarah sighs softly. The memories of that night are practically visible in the reflection of her eyes. Neither of them want to think about it, but Clem has to know.

“I don’t know.” She continues to gingerly press the cloth against the other girl’s face, her eyes still in another world. “That night, I just… ran. I ran and I never stopped running.”

Clem’s gaze falls to the ground as she tries to piece it together. She wishes Sarah wouldn’t be so vague, but then she remembers that there would be no point in that. It’s all over now.

“They said they were looking for a school,” Clementine continues. She watches Sarah closely, in case her expression gives anything away. At the same time, Clem doesn’t want hers to do the same. She still isn’t sure how much these people know about Ericson. “Is that why you were… intimidating those people? In the woods?” Clem could think of a better word for that too, but she would feel awful accusing Sarah of anything more.

“We weren’t going to hurt them,” she reasons.

Finally, Sarah retracts her hand and sits back on her knees. When she lowers the cloth, the majority of it is already stained red.

“Yeah, well, it looks to me your friends don’t seem too hesitant to hurt people,” Clem points out.

“You don’t understand,” Sarah’s volume rises defensively. “We… we do what we have to - to survive. Just like you do.” She rises to a stand, suddenly frustrated. “We’re basically living on scraps out here. Right now, Ericson is our only hope of surviving.”

“And what do you plan on doing when you find it?” tests Clementine. She hasn’t been here that long but judging by what she’s seen of these bandits so far, she can’t imagine that whatever their plan is will be a friendly one.

“I don’t—” Sarah finds herself unable to answer that. Why can’t she just admit what they both know is true? “I shouldn’t even be talking to you right now. You’re our prisoner.” With that, Sarah begins to storm away.

“Sarah, wait,” Clementine leaps to her feet, as if it’ll stop the other girl from leaving. She grips the bars between them, finding herself useless behind them. “Please.” Clem may be their prisoner, but Sarah may be Louis and Clem’s only chance of getting out of here.

Sarah freezes with her hand gripping the doorknob. She’s staring down at her own feet, as if they will somehow give her the answer.

When Sarah finally turns over her shoulder, there are tears forming in her eyes all over again. She takes a breath, and Clem hopes she might just come back to her.

“I can’t trust you, Clementine.” Her voice cracks, as if she’s already apologizing. Sarah’s gaze locks onto hers as the tears begin to pour. “You… you killed him.”

For a moment, Clementine only stares after her in confusion, wondering what she could mean by that. Then she suddenly remembers the boy who had attacked her in the woods, and the way her knife had met his throat before she even saw his face.

Clem’s eyes widen as realization hits her.

She suddenly can’t remember if he had even been the one who attacked first, because all she can think about now is the way Sarah is looking at her. It’s as if Clem is witnessing Sarah’s heart break right in front of her, which only causes Clementine’s own to do the same.

In a panic, her mind scrambles for anything that will save her, but Sarah rushes out the door before Clementine even gets the chance to try.


	4. i've done you wrong

_Six years ago_

_There’s something outside. She can hear it._

_Her hands desperately scramble around her for anything she can use, but she can’t see a thing in the pitch darkness. There’s hardly enough space in here for her to even sit up straight._

_Suddenly, the car door is lifted above her head and a white light nearly blinds her from outside._

_“Don’t hurt me!” Sarah screams, shielding her face with her hands. She curls her body even further into the back of the trunk, but there’s no where left to go._

_“Whoa, whoa, hey! It’s okay!” A voice frantically shouts back at her, but Sarah only continues to whimper in protest._

_She doesn’t dare open her eyes as her entire body buckles in preparation for whatever pain is about to come. Her hands only continue to tremble and she still can’t remember how to breath. She expects someone to grab her, or shoot her in the face, or bite her face off. But nobody does._

_“I’m not gonna hurt you,” says the voice, albeit much calmer this time._

_For a while, Sarah only continues to hide her face behind her arms, panting for breath. Finally, she dares to open her eyes. Craning her neck, she squints into the bright light shining directly in her face. Then the light slightly shifts away and she notices a face peering at her from behind it, but it’s too dark outside for her to tell who it is._

_The person lowers the flashlight, allowing Sarah to get a better look._

_It’s a boy – a teenager, with short black hair, a backpack and the hood of his jacket pulled over his head. His frame is a lot tinier than she had expected. She doesn’t recognize his face, but she’s suddenly captivated by the terrified look in his eyes, as if they are mirroring Sarah’s own._

_He’s just staring at her, wide-eyed as he hunches to peer inside the back of the car. His hand is propping the door above their heads, and he looks pretty shaken up. Sarah realizes she probably scared him too._

_Finally, the girl’s racing heart begins to slow. “You’re… you’re not one of them,” quavers Sarah in a tiny voice._

_“Who?” he asks._

_She turns away, avoiding his eyes. “The monsters.”_

_“No, I’m not.” He shrugs, then looks down at himself briefly as if to make sure. “Not yet, anyway.”_

_Sarah still refuses to look at him. Clearly his shot at humour hadn’t worked._

_“Are you okay?” he asks, his tone more serious this time._

_Sarah pulls her knees even further into her chest. She sniffles weakly. “No.”_

_“I—I heard you crying,” he says, but Sarah doesn’t respond. “A-are you alone?”_

_For a second, Sarah only stares blankly to her side. She hadn’t been alone. She was with people, lots of people. And lots of monsters. But now… where are they? She can’t remember._

_All she remembers is the terrifying sound of her dad… screaming. It’s somehow all she can hear anymore. There had been so many voices and sounds all around her that she didn’t know what to do, so she just ran. Because her dad always told her that if she didn’t feel safe, that she should run – run and hide until she feels safe again, and that he would come find her._

_She doesn’t know how long it’s been since then. Maybe hours. Maybe days, or weeks._

_The tears begin to pour again. Her clothes are still smeared in guts, and the rotting smell of it makes her want to puke. It’s so tiny in here that she begins to panic all over again._

_The boy nervously glances around himself, completely unsure of what to do. “Um… hey. It’s okay.”_

_He wants to reach out and touch her, but ultimately thinks better of it, figuring she’s already scared enough as it is. Sarah doesn’t notice._

_Eventually, Sarah’s sobs begin to die down and she wipes her nose with her sleeve._

_Just breathe. Just breathe. One… Two… Three…_

_“I’m Kai,” introduces the boy._

_Finally, Sarah peers up at him, her expression softening in the slightest._

_He flashes her a sideways smile in an attempt to make her feel less afraid._

_She’s not supposed to give her name to strangers. She’s not even supposed to talk to them. But this stranger doesn’t look like the other strangers. He’s nice to her, and he’s not pointing a gun at her, or trying to bite her. His voice calms her somehow. Kind of like Clementine’s does._

_“I’m… S-Sarah,” she murmurs._

_He tilts his head curiously. “How old are you?”_

_She looks away from him again. “Fifteen.”_

_Kai flashes her another warm grin, and that makes Sarah want to smile too. “Me too,” he says. They lock eyes for a few moments, and suddenly Sarah is not afraid anymore. “Here,” he takes a step back from the car and extends an arm out to her. “Take my hand.”_

_Initially, Sarah wants to refuse, and she doesn’t move a muscle. She’s not allowed to follow anyone she doesn’t know. But as the boy only continues to watch her expectantly, she realizes she’d rather do that than continue hiding in here alone until she starves. Or worse. For some reason, she trusts him._

_Hesitantly, Sarah reaches a trembling hand out to him. Her gingerly pulls her out of the vehicle and she stumbles onto her feet._

* * *

“ _God knows how many more of them are out there. We need to act fast_.”

Sarah slows to a stop at the muffled voices nearby. She quickly notices the partially open window above her, and the bright orange glow that flickers through it.

“ _They will have already realized their friends haven’t come back yet_.”

Vanya’s voice is muffled through the wall, but Sarah recognizes it immediately.

She glances around her in search of any other lingering figures, but pretty much everyone has already gone to sleep by now. It’s probably too dark for anyone to notice her between the two cabins, anyway.

“ _We’re secluded enough out here that they won’t find us. At least, not yet_.” It takes Sarah a second to decipher the second female voice. It must be Diya. She’s always there for the meetings.

Sarah’s patrol shift had ended later than expected tonight, and the more she listens, the more Sarah realizes how tired she is. She should probably be going back to her room, too. Yet, she can’t bring herself to move.

“ _You said they have a safe zone_?” asks Vanya.

“ _Y-yes_ ,” a third person, Callum, speaks up. “ _I heard one of them talking about it_.” His voice is significantly smaller than the authoritative tone of the others. Sarah remembers him from their patrol in the woods the other day, the one with the scavengers.

“ _It’s only a matter of time until they start going past it_ ,” continues Vanya. “ _We’re leading them right to us_.”

“ _We could let them go_?” proposes Callum hesitantly. “ _Send them with a message_.”

“ _That still won’t bring us closer to the school_.”

“ _Either that, or we bring them in again. One by one_ ,” suggests Diya. “ _Start cutting off their fingers for all I care_.”

“ _They’re just a couple of kids_ ,” protests Callum.

“ _What do you suggest we do? Just let them go_?” Diya argues. “ _We are_ dying _out here_.”

“ _Why don’t we just, I don’t know,_ talk _to them_?”

“ _You saw how well that went the first time. These people aren’t giving up without a fight_.” Vanya admits, evidently frustrated. “ _They’ve proven to be more difficult than I thought_.”

“ _So… what? We threaten them_?”

“ _We have no other choice. Look, all I know is they have security. Food, weapons, supplies, everything_ we _don’t have_ ,” Vanya points out, her voice a lot more level than Callum’s.

“ _But—what if it were Sarah? Or Kai_?”

“ _Kai is_ dead _and it’s because of those fucking kids_!” Vanya’s sudden outburst causes Sarah to flinch. It isn’t often Sarah hears her speak that way. At least, not deliberately in front of her. “ _We can’t let them get away with that_.”

Sarah’s worried eyes aimlessly search the ground as her heart begins to race. All she can see anymore is the way his face had looked that day, his dead eyes just staring up at the sky - the same eyes that had shown her more kindness than anyone even bothered to in the past six years.

She’d looked away when the bullet went through his head moments later, but she’ll never forget the sound of it. Tears begin to pool in her eyes from the horrible memory.

Sarah dares not to breath as the entire cabin goes silent. Then, Vanya sighs audibly. When she speaks again, her voice is calmer, and Sarah can hardly hear her anymore.

“ _I need to know who did it_ ,” she says. “ _Was there anyone else with them? You said you saw a couple more by the river_.”

“ _Yeah… A redhead girl, I think_ ,” reports Diya. “ _And a little boy, looked to be about ten. It was hard to tell, though_.”

“ _What about the ones we saw in the woods? Are we sure they got away_?”

“ _They weren’t with the school. Just a couple of scavengers_.”

Vanya takes another steady breath. “ _So, which one was it then_?” she asks. “ _I… I need to be sure_.”

“ _It… It was the girl_ ,” reveals Callum. “ _The one with the hat. The boy said her name was, um…_ Clementine.”

Sarah’s hands tremble at the name. Her heart is racing so fast that it pounds through her ears, nearly blocking out the sound of the muffled voices.

“ _Saw her standing over his dead body_ , _until I knocked her out_.”

It turns silent again and the anticipation is agonizing. For a moment, Sarah thinks she may have been caught and that’s why they aren’t saying anything, but when she nervously glances up at the window above her, she still can’t see anyone through it.

“ _We’re gonna send Ericson a message_ ,” says Vanya, her tone now emotionless.

“… _Ma’am_?”

“ _I want her dead by tomorrow_.”

Sarah clasps a hand over her mouth as the tears finally fall, hoping no one can hear her panicked breathing.

“ _Wait_ —"

Frantic footsteps begin to shuffle throughout the cabin.

“ _We only need one of them alive_ ,” interrupts Vanya sternly. “ _Do it in her sleep, feed her to the walkers for all I care, just get it done_.”

“ _Kai wouldn’t have wanted this! Think about Sarah_ —"

“I _make the orders around here_!” shouts Vanya, her voice entirely overpowering Callum’s own. “ _I don’t care who she is, or how young she is, she_ murdered _one of ours_!”

The footsteps come to an abrupt stop, and Sarah holds her breath.

When Vanya speaks again, her volume has lowered significantly, and her tone is nothing but threatening. “ _Show me where your loyalties lie, or you will suffer the same fate_.”

No one dares to speak anymore, and all Sarah can do is remain frozen. Then the shuffling picks up again and the door suddenly swings open from around the corner.

Frantically, Sarah presses her back against the wall. She can’t see Vanya from here, but she listens until she hears the door close again and the woman’s storming footsteps can’t be heard anymore.

Finally, she allows herself to breathe again. A panicked whimper escapes her throat.

They’re going to kill Clementine. In just a couple hours, or minutes, she’s going to be dead. And Sarah is supposed to just let it happen.

All they know her as is a murderer. But the Clementine Sarah remembers is kind, and gentle, and she’d never mean to hurt anyone.

Yet at the same time, Sarah _saw_ what Clem had done to him – as if she hadn’t even hesitated. Maybe she isn’t the same little girl that Sarah remembers her being. And as much as Sarah wanted to hate Clem for what she did, she just… can’t. Because even after all these years, all she sees in Clementine’s eyes is Kai.

Even looking at her hurts her too much.

Kai was her best friend. And Clementine… she had been Sarah’s best friend once, too.

With her mind scrambling, Sarah doesn’t know _what_ Clem meant to do. All she knows is they’re going to kill her, and she doesn’t have a lot of time before it happens.

Sarah _has_ to get them out of here before it’s too late.


End file.
